Log of SV Wendaway

It’s been a challenge for me getting my daily dose of news of the world while cruising on Mexico’s Pacific coast aboard SV SolMate.

Sometimes we are within the magic radius of a sufficiently strong Wifi signal and then all my news subscriptions via RSS come streaming in courtesy of our terrific external Wifi antenna. But more often than not the bulk of my news comes from ham networks such as Amigo Net.

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24° 13′ N
110°18′ W

We pulled up anchor in Bahia de los Muertos at dawn (actually, an hour before dawn) because we had heard that an early morning assault on the “dreaded Cerralvo Channel”* was the best way to avoid the characteristically boisterous winds in this 5 mile wide waterway.

But look at the calm water in this photo – Neal and I were busy looking ahead at the spreading expanse of “milkpond” conditions when we were overtaken by a ferry headed for La Paz.

Neal, Wendy and Anna busied themselves with polishing the metalwork on SolMate as the courageous skipper dealt with navigating SolMate through the dreaded San Lorenzo Channel…rounding the tip of this stretch of Baja California Sur between channel markers, and thus avoiding the Scout Shoals to the south and the San Lorenzo Shoal to the north. All along the shoreline, deserted white sand beaches shimmered in the brilliant sunlight. The crew were happy to be otherwise occupied with relatively mindless work as long as the skipper was free to confront the marine hazards with his steely concentration and excellent seamanship.

We rounded the corner and soon found ourselves at Marina Costa Baja.

Costa Baja is a relatively new marina with an adjoining hotel and, most importantly, a swimming pool that cruceros are welcome to use. Anna and Birri move off the boat and into the hotel. We are now waiting for the rest of the Schneider contingent to arrive from California Norte.

*The “dreaded Cerralvo Channel” presumably does live up to its name at times, but other cruisers, such as the sailing vessel Kavenga, has also reported on “milkpond”-like conditions:

“After leaving Bahia de La Paz we entered the “dreaded” Cerralvo Channel, which fortunately for us was entirely placid and benign.” Weblog of SV Kavenga May 2006

20°44.865′ N -105°22.7 W

At this precise global position (obtained from our GPS at our navigation station), recent arrival Anna Z. B. Schneider demonstrates our new acquisitions, a rail-mounted BBQ and our outboard engine mount (not shown is the new anchor mount, port side).

Also not shown is Lorraine Beattie, who provided custody and care of the items as several international borders, security checkpoints, and various officials were confronted and suborned with efficient dispatch.

Our thanks to Lorraine and Anna – but we should not forget our diligent son Simon (shown previously) who provided general factotum services in the provision of said items. Altogether a successful mission!

 21° 31.04′ N     -105°14.3′ W

It is early am and all is grey. We have 13 other sailboats at anchor here. We’re getting ready to go into San Blas.

Here is a chart of where we are:

We are anchored where the red boat shape is (this is generated by our electronic navigation system, which takes our position from our GPS and renders it onto an electronic version of a paper chart).

Tomorrow we head south about 21 miles to a small place called Chacala. You can see where it is on the green map (courtesy of Wikipedia).

Today we went into San Blas and it is a delight to the eye. Brilliant colors all around – old buildings and a sense that this community has been here a very long time.

It appears that San Blas has an interesting connection with the west coast of what is now Canada.

Back in the latter part of the 18th century, San Blas was an important naval post for the Spanish crown, and it sent out explorers to the far reaches of North America – where Nootka (on the west coast of Vancouver Island) was an important military station for its domination of the Pacific.

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Yesterday I wrote about Longfellow’s last poem, “The Bells of San Blas” and today we found them at the main church just on the zocalo in the central area of town. Simon snapped the photo.The church had placed a bronze plaque commemorating the poem, which I found somewhat ironic since it appears to my reading of the full poem that Longfellow had penned an elegy to a fading Spanish empire – which included the Catholic Church in the New World:

They are a voice of the Past,
Of an age that is fading fast,
Of a power austere and grand,
When the flag of Spain unfurled
Its folds o’er this western world,
And the Priest was lord of the land.